Excellent condition and
all original. Beautiful Dakota Red finish, which wasn't a "custom
color" on Mustangs: Red, Daphne Blue and Olympic White were standard
on early models, before the odd "competition" finishes of
the late 60s. Such colors would be very rare and expensive on
Stratocasters...
Late '65 has to be considered as one of the best
periods for this model, due to the use of a very nice brazilian
rosewood "slab" fretboard until late '66.

Good action and
playability, sounds great too. One of the original pickups is dated
October 1965, neck is dated November 65 and pots are from the 43rd
week of the same year. The guitar shows normal playing wear, with some
edge wear especially on the lower part of the back where the wood
shows under the red and the white undercoat. These details are
clrearly shown in the pictures below. Also shown are the small plugged
holes from other tuners installed for some time, visible after the
original "F", plastic-button tuners are disassembled.
Original tuners are back in place and work with no issues.

Finish is
bright and in overall good condition, with the above mentioned edge
wear and some light checking. The back of neck and headstock shows a
little more checking and normal playing wear. Frets are in good
condition; very nice dark brazilian fingerboard, thick and cut in the
classic 'slab' shape.

Original hardshell case in overall good condition but with two of the
three latches broken. A beautiful, simple, original, cheap and good
sounding guitar.